I have been low carb since January 2016. I started with the Ketogenic Diet, and have been on the Contemporary Carnivore Diet since October 2017. I love this way of eating but there are only so many times I can blog about how great I feel. So I decided to get other people to tell you how great they feel instead!

Bronson has a very sensible approach and mindset regarding the Carnivore Diet, and he is always trying to learn like I am.

If you have a Carnivore Diet success story you would like to share. Please get in touch with me.

Interview with Bronson

1) Introduce Yourself.

My name is Bronson Dant. I’m 46 years old. I’ve been following a carnivore diet for almost 8 months. I’m former US Army, spent 20+ years in IT, and currently own a Fitness Center in Ellicott City, Maryland, USA. As a fitness professional, my goals are about improving health and wellness. I’m very happy with what I’ve seen from the carnivore diet and its impact on all aspects of fitness and health.

2) How did you eat before Carnivore.

I was somewhere between regular paleo and keto. No processed grains, low sugar, and some veggies. I’m a bourbon guy, so that was in there a few times a week as well. Percentage-wise, I never really keep track. I followed the “that looks like enough” method of portion sizing.

3) Why did you try Carnivore to begin with.

A) Improve my bathroom experience

B) I was tired of losing strength when I lost body fat and gaining body fat when I added strength. I wanted to see if I could get stronger and leaner at the same time.

C) I wanted to see if there was any validity to the things I was hearing, in case I could use this diet to help my clients.

4) How do you personally approach the Carnivore Diet.

I’ll try and keep this short… I’m balancing a couple things. First I’m working through what will work for me. Second I’m testing things out so I have an idea of how things could work for others.The first 6 months were very strict and I went through periods of tracking everything to tracking nothing. I wanted to see how easy it was to maintain certain numbers without having to obsess over the amounts. The last two months I’ve added cheese, some condiments, and even had ice cream once a week. I wanted to see if the additional carbs made any change or if my body was able to “dual-burn” after being fat adapted for so long. (sneak peek: numbers haven’t changed yet…..)Next on my list is to go strict again, test OMAD, and then try calculated carb cycling with my workouts to see what effect it may have. There are so many things to learn. It’s never-ending.My overall take on carnivore is that for a majority of people, it is a fantastic elimination diet. It can be a long-term diet for some people, but there has to be a certain sense of “rightness” that a person feels with this way of eating in order to make it work. I’ve mentored enough people in my 6-week program to know that transitioning to a low % keto is much more sustainable for most people. I’m leaning more towards promoting what I’d call a “Meat-Based” diet than trying to force 100% carnivore down people’s throats.

5) What benefits have you seen since starting the Carnivore Diet.

I went from 17% body fat to 9.5%. Overall I’ve gained a few pounds of muscle. My testosterone has increased. My LDL numbers all got better. My Inflammation markers have stayed good. My bathroom experience has been a life-changing experience. No muss, no fuss.I’m able to workout 2-3 days more per week than I was before. My recovery time is greatly reduced. I’m able to get more training in the same amount of time. This plus less body fat, and more muscle has contributed to many, many new personal records in strength and high-intensity workouts.

6) What negatives have you found with the Carnivore Diet.

It is easy to see how one could get bored with the reduced color and flavor options. You’ve gotta be creative and remind yourself why you are following the diet.I’m not 100% sold on the question of micro-nutrients. I’ve been doing research on what’s in various kinds of meat and I’m finding some small holes with some vitamins and minerals. Nothing I can conclude yet, but I’m not sure everything is in meat……That being said, I’m also not sure everything NEEDS to be in the meat. The RDA’s we follow are based on a diet that is so far away from what carnivore is, we have no idea to what level there is or if there is any overlap between the two. We don’t need vitamin C, or fiber like we once thought. Who knows what else we don’t need as much of, when we remove carbs from our diet.

7) Do you exercise on the Carnivore Diet, if so how do you find it and what do you do.

Crossfit, working out is awesome. I feel great every day! Remember I’m 46 years old I have herniated discs in my neck. I found CrossFit when I was 40 and it’s done nothing but make me better.https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQNHT0GyHGsfJTUTGdTTQyVIoWPxdpoAgHere’s the basic template that I work off of.– Monday: Heavy Lower– Tuesday: Heavy Upper– Wednesday: Active Recovery, Accessory work– Thursday: Hypertrophy Lower– Friday: Hypertrophy Upper– Saturday: Rest– Sunday: Accessory, Skill workA typical workout for me goes something like this.10:00 Warm-up15:00 to 20:00 Main lift10:00 to 15:00 Secondary lift/Superset work10:00 to 20:00 Metcon10:00 to 15:00 Accessory/Finishing work

8) What piece of advice would you give someone who is interested in trying this diet, but hasn’t taken the leap yet.

Do your research, decide how you want to start and don’t change anything from that plan for the first 3 months. It’s so frustrating to work with people who want to make a change every single week. It takes time and you have to give it time before you make changes.Have a measurable goal. If you don’t define what you want to get out of this then you won’t be as successful as you could be.

9) Do you think Carnivore will ever be accepted as a mainstream diet.

Nope. Although I guess you’d have to define what mainstream means. Will millions of people follow it, probably not. Keto has a better chance of that.

10) Anything you would like to add, and where can people follow your journey.

There are a ton of things I could add but I’ll let you guys follow me on my blog and social media for all that. I have become passionate about what this diet can do and learning how it does it. I’m just a guy asking questions and sharing the answers I find with you. http://themeatlife.com/https://www.facebook.com/themeatlife/@the_meatlife on InstagramI wrote a short book about a bunch of the things I learned during the first few months I was doing this. It’s a quick summary of some eye-opening information that has drastically changed the way I view modern medicine, nutrition, and everything I thought I knew about health. https://goo.gl/QKTAsj

I hoped you enjoyed this interview post. If you haven’t already, check out Bronson on Instagram.